Nintendo to Mobile Partners: “Limit Microtransations”

In another unprecedented move from Nintendo, the company has decided to take a completely opposite approach to its entry in the mobile gaming sphere by telling its partners that they want to… make less money.

Yes, this is a real situation reported by The Wall Street Journal. According to their report, Nintendo has developed a more consumer-friendly policy toward mobile gaming that flies in the face of how mobile gaming has been done up to this point. Those who’ve been around for a while know that Nintendo’s entry into mobile gaming came as a bit of a shock, since they’d barely even explored the concept of paid DLC when they announced their first mobile game partnership.

Concerns emerged immediately about Nintendo’s smartphone offerings and the cost involved, but as the games released, players were able to start the games for free (free-to-play and free-to-start models) but progression past a certain point required smaller transactions. Regardless, Fire Emblem Heroes and Dragalia Lost have found significant audiences and have been received very well quality-wise.

Players of mobile games have been known to spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars on their games of choice to do things like speed up gameplay or earn in-game rewards, but players of Nintendo and Nintendo partner mobile games may have noticed a difference with the company’s offerings. This is because Nintendo actually told its mobile development partners to adjust games to limit possible microtransations so that players don’t spend too much money.

Read that again. Nintendo wants to prevent its loyal fanbase from overspending. This decision benefits the consumer, of course, but it also benefits the company by allowing them to keep a positive reputation among the gaming community and its fans. The Wall Street Journal reported via an official from CyberAgent, the parent company of Cygames which developed Dragalia Lost, that “Nintendo is nor interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game. If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more.”

Surprising to hear from any gaming company, but also refreshing. And a decision like this goes a long way to building trust and loyalty from consumers. Nintendo is leading by example with this approach, and we can only hope that other mobile gaming companies start to see the benefit in this type of consumer-friendly decision making as this gaming platform moves into the future.